Tuesday, January 5, 2010

4:14 p.m.

Ansel Adams was known for keeping unreliable dates for some of his best photographs. Adams once said, "my unfortunate disregard for the dates of my negatives I have caused considerable dismay among photographic historians."

An honors physics class from Texas State University-San Marcos, titled "Astronomy in Art, History, and Literature," determined the exact moment (to the minute) Ansel Adams captured the famous "Moon and Half Dome." December 28, 1960 at 4:14 PM. Their work was published in the December 1994 Sky & Telescope magazine. The PDF of this article can be found here.

"Moon and Half Dome"

There was an "encore" on December 13, 1994 4:05 PM, which the Texas State students predicted.

This past November, on the 28th at 4:04 PM, there was another "celestial encore" for "Moon and Half Dome" in the sky east of Ahwahnee Meadow, Yosemite National Park.